1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector assembly, and more particularly to a connector assembly in which a connector has in its housing a movable protection plate for positioning and protecting the contact portions thereof protruding into an engagement opening of a counterpart connector.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, there has been widely used a multipolar connector having not fewer than twenty poles in a wire harness for use in an automobile. In such a multipolar connector, there is provided an opening having a great area in section for receiving a counterpart connector in a housing of a connector, and many contact portions of a male terminal are protruding at certain intervals in the opening.
The contact portions of the male terminal are protruding as entirely exposed in the opening, and in practice the counterpart connector is inserted into the opening with the contact portions of the male terminal inserted in contact receiving chambers of the counterpart connector to thereby connect the male terminal with the female terminal provided in the contact receiving portions.
In the above-mentioned conventional connector, since the contact portions of the male terminal are entirely exposed in the opening, when the female terminal connector is obliquely put in contact with the male terminal connector, the contact portions may be deformed. Furthermore, since the contact portions are protruding with small intervals therebetween, the contact portions may not be aligned with the corresponding contact receiving chambers possibly abutting the contact portions to partition walls of the contact receiving chambers or possibly inserting the contact portions into other contact receiving chambers different from the corresponding ones.
In order to provide a solution to the above-mentioned problems, as shown in FIGS. 9 through 11, there has been conventionally proposed a method of providing a protection plate 4 formed with many holes 4a through which contact portions 3a penetrate in a connector receiving opening 2 of a first connector 1 for the purpose of protecting and positioning the contact portions 3a of a male terminal 3, and closing the opening 2 with the protection plate 4.
The protection plate 4 is, as shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, held at a forward end portion of the opening 2 by means of engagement projections 6a and 6b provided on the inner surface of a connector housing 5, and at the forward end position the tip ends of the contact portions 3a are protruded through the holes 4a of the protection plate 4.
When thrusting a counterpart (second) connector 7 into the opening 2 of the first connector 1, the protection plate 4 retreats as shown in FIG. 11 by the thrust force thereby to expose the contact portions 3a of the male terminal 3 and insert the contact portions 3a into the corresponding contact receiving chambers of the second connector 7 to thereby connect the contact portions 3a of the male terminal 3 with the female terminals set in the contact receiving chambers.
When inserting the male terminal 3 connected to an electric wire 8 into the connector 1 having the protection plate 4, a problem may occur in such a repair case where the male terminal 3 is inserted into an incorrect terminal chamber 5a and required to be reinserted into the correct terminal chamber.
In more detail, in the male terminal 3 inserted in the terminal chamber 5a of the connector 1, a lance section 5b provided protrusively in the connector housing 5 is inserted in a latch hole 3b formed in the male terminal 3 to be engaged with the male terminal 3, and therefore the male terminal 3 cannot be extracted from the terminal chamber 5a in the direction X shown in FIG. 11.
Therefore, after prying off the protection plate 4 through the opening 2 of the connector housing 5 by means of a jig tool, the lance section 5b must be pressed down to extract and replace the male terminal 3. In other words, the protection plate 4 behaves as an obstacle when repairing the terminal, and therefore the protection plate must be removed. After changing the terminal, the protection plate must be remounted in the connector.
Moreover, when a connector is coupled with an incorrect connector and required to be reinserted into a correct connector, it is preferred to return the protection plate to the forward position, however, generally the protection plate is not interlocked, the plate must be put back to the original position by means of a jig tool.
Furthermore, the protection plate 4 is held at the original forward end position, as shown in FIG. 9, as engaged with the engagement projections 6a and 6b provided protrusively on the inner surface of the connector housing 5 in order to protect the terminal contact portions 3a. Therefore, it is necessary to thrust the second connector 7 into the opening 2 of the first connector 1 so as to release the engagement between the protection plate 4 and the engagement projections 6a and 6b, and therefore a great thrust force is necessary.
In particular, when connecting a multipolar male terminal connector with the counterpart female terminal connector for use in a wire harness in an automobile, a great connecting force is necessary. The above means that, in addition to a great thrust force necessary for the second connector, an extra force for releasing the engagement between the protection plate and the projections is necessary.
Therefore, the connector has a deteriorated operability, and if the counterpart connector is thrust with a great force in an inclined direction, the connector or terminal tends to be deformed or damaged.